It's only five days until the scholarship deadline. Have you said what you wanted to say? Have you debated to your fullest? Or have you been cheating the system to get that $1000? Have you posted meaningless or plagiarized crap or somehow kept your own post in the "Most emailed" or "Highest rated" lists. If so, you are not alone. Many bloggers are guilty of manipulating the system. But to the your credit, it is not all your fault.

First, I would like to make sure we are all on the same page here with the point system: A post is worth 50 pts, a comment that you make is 10 pts, and a read on your post is worth 1 pt.

The quality of decent and fair posts on this site has been steadily declining as bloggers have realized the potential in points that await them. I have seen many an article from New York Times.com or The Onion.com copied and pasted onto a post with a tag at the end saying, "So what do you think of this?" These posts avoid deletion because the posters avoid plagiarism by citing where the article came from. Almost no effort has been put into the post, yet they have now received 50 pts towards a scholarship of $1000. The same could be said about the quantity of comments that one makes on this site.

While I agree that each read on a post should be worth 1 pt, I do not agree with the methods that some bloggers have used to obtain the most of them. There are two lists on every page, showing the highest rated and most emailed blogs. More often than not, there are only one or two different users in the top rated list, which leads me to suspect that those bloggers have created more users to boost their own popularity. This belief may be unfounded, but I would not put it past several people on this site. Also, if you are not already aware, only one email is required to make a post appear on the most emailed list. In fact, you can email the post to yourself and still keep your post on the most emailed list (and on every page) for many days longer than it would have normally.

The solution, although simple, cannot be dealt with by you or me, but by the managers of this site. First, I believe that each post should be worth, at most, 20 points. Comments left by other users on your post should be worth 10 points, but the comments that you leave on other posts should only be worth 5 points. In other words, if someone leaves a comment on your blog, you will receive 10 points, but they will receive 5; if you comment on someone else's blog, you will receive 5 points, but they will receive 10 points. If you comment on your own blog in response to someone else, it should count only as 5 points. Finally, the star rating system should be factored into the point system as well, with 1-2 points per star. Not only will this encourage rating of posts, but it will increase the amount of points that each blogger deserves to receive.

As for the "Highest Rated" and "Most Emailed" lists on every page, a minimum number of votes and emails should be made in order for the blog to be added to the list.

I mean for this to help the future competitions and bloggers, not as a way for you readers to find more ways to be point mongerers. I hope that those of you who have remained respectful of the system will continue to do so for the next 5 days. As for the rest of you, enjoy your popularity while you can, and I hope that the money goes to someone more deserving than you.

But to the Progressive U Team, I hope this helps you realize that it is time to hand out awards for the quality of posts, not the quantity.